Vineland, NJ – New Jersy Holocaust Survivor Says She Remembers Seeing John Demjanjuk

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    Vineland Holocaust survivor remembers seeing John Demjanjuk at Sobibor death campVineland, NJ – Esther Raab says she remembers John Demjanjuk.

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    She remembers him as a Ukrainian soldier, working in a Nazi death camp in Poland when she was a captive there in 1943. He would bring ammunition into the armory, where it would be fed into chains for machine guns. He would then leave with the ammo, and she’d hear the firing squads execute camp prisoners. Demjanjuk would return with the spent ammo.

    “He wasn’t the tops,” Raab said. “He helped with transport. He put in the bullets. He went with the machine (gun).”

    “When they caught him in America,” Raab said, “I said, ‘I remember him.’”

    Today, Demjanjuk stands trial in Munich, Germany, for alleged war crimes in arguably the world’s most watched trial, as German prosecutors bring forth a case that, according to the German magazine focus, will have no eyewitnesses.

    Meanwhile, the 88-year-old Raab sits more than 4,000 miles away in her adopted hometown of Vineland, with no part in the trial. She spent nine months at the Sobibor death camp in Poland before escaping in 1943 during a successful uprising there and hiding in a family friend’s barn for months. She later came to the U.S. with her husband, Irving, and they settled in Vineland, where their chicken farm grew to become Vineland Kosher Poultry, which bills itself as one of the nation’s three largest kosher chicken slaughterhouses.

    Raab says she would testify in the Demjanjuk trial if asked. After all, it wouldn’t be her first war crimes trial. She testified in the 1950 trial of former Sobibor gas chamber operator Erich Bauer after she and a fellow Sobibor survivor spotted him at an amusement park. Bauer was subsequently convicted of mass murder. She also testified in other cases, including in defense of a Sobibor officer who was acquitted after she spoke of his kindness to prisoners.

    This time, however, no one has called.

    “She some years ago could not identify him in a photo spread provided by U.S. government officials,” said Martin Mendelsohn, an attorney representing Sobibor survivors’ descendants who have joined in the case.

    That was more than 32 years ago. It’s why in 1993, after she first went public with her recollections, the Simon Wiesenthal Center recommended that her testimony not be used in Israel’s case against Demjanjuk.

    Now prosecutors have again gone on without her, proceeding in a case with a legal history like no other.

    Soviet soldier, captured

    Read the full story at Press Of Atlantic City


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    12 Comments
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    Milhouse
    Milhouse
    14 years ago

    “When they caught him in America,” Raab said, “I said, ‘I remember him.’”

    If, when he was charged with having been Ivan the Terrible at Treblinka, she remembered him at Sobibor, why didn’t she speak up in his defense? Obviously she did not remember him at that time, and is now imagining it. Such testimonies are very unreliable, as evidenced by all the witnesses who were sure they recognised Demjanjuk from Treblinka, when we now know he was never there.

    T.Blatt
    T.Blatt
    14 years ago

    I thought prisoners were gassed at Sobibor, not shot.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    I have known Mrs. Raab for years, and what is not mentioned here is that she has made keeping the memory of the Kedoshim alive her life’s work. She has written a book about Sobibor which was made into a movie. She used to travel the country speaking at colleges, and speaking to children, she has been interviewed numerous times both for tv and print articles, and she remembers everything. I would trust her memory 100 per cent, as this is her specialty. She will never forget anything that happened there because she lives with it daily.

    Asher Buchwalter
    Asher Buchwalter
    14 years ago

    Every unnatural death occurred in Sobibor but # 6 you are correct this what caused many mistrials due to delayed and contradictory statements by some survivors. However, the mere fact that he was trained in Trawniki should have been sufficient to declared him involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    the book written about sobibor which was made into a movie[a chrysler presentation and aired on t.v.]was written by Richard Rashke based on testimony by many survivors tovia blatt, sasha pecherski ester Raab[turner] is one of the interviewees to all the survivors i say biz hundred und tzwantzig!

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Sobibor survivors who knew all the guards (they were assigned to clean the barracks) testified in Israel that he was never at Sobibor.

    This trial will only backfire no matter what the verdict is.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Sobibor survivors who knew all the guards (they were assigned to clean the barracks) testified in Israel that he was never at Sobibor.

    This trial will only backfire no matter what the verdict is.